captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- gwen: a week of big wins for the white house and a fractured democratic party, is it the end of washington gridlock or beginning of a new round? we assess a not-so lame duck congressional session tonight on "washington week." >> 2/3 of the senate present having voted in the affirmative, the resolution towards ratification is agreed to. >> a new start treaty. >> it can can blow any attacker to kingdom come. >> it sends a signal that republicans and democrats stand together on behalf of our security. gwen: repeal of don't ask, don't tell. >> no longer will tens of thousands of americans be asked to live a lie or look over their shoulder in order to serve the country that they love. gwen: and even health kay for 9/11 responders. >> this is the day we have all

been working towards and waiting for. our christmas miracle has arrived. gwen: president obama very, very good week. successful lame duck session. >> one thing i hope people have seen during this lame duck, i am persistent. i am persistent. if i believe in something strongly, i stay on. gwen: how did the man pull it off? look at the week's frustration, achievements, peter baker of the "new york times," dan balz of the "washington post," gloria borger of cnn and susan davis of national journal. >> award-winning reporting and analysis, covering history as it happens. from our nation's capital, this

is "washington week" with gwen ifill produced in association with national journal. corporate funding is provided by -- >> i would have loved to have been a music and, but i knew i needed a day job. we have scientists that play music, the creativity, there is a tie there. one thing our scientists are working on is carbon capture and storage which prevents co-2 from entering the atmosphere. we can safely freeze out the co-2 from natural gas. looks like snow. one way we are helping to provide energy with fewer emissions. >> this rock has never stood still. since 1875, we have been there for our clients through good times and bad. when their needs changed, we were there to meet them. through the years from insurance to investment management, from real estate to retirement solutions, we developed new ideas for the financial challenges ahead.

this rock has never stood still. and that's one thing that will never change. prudential. >> corporate funding also provided by boeing and wells fargo advisors. additional funding for "washington week" is provided by the ethics in excellence in journalism foundation, the annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again, from washington, moderator gwen ifill. gwen: good evening, well where to begin. if anyone has suggested after the midterm elections we would be sitting around this table for the last show of the year talking about an obama comeback, he or she would have been laughed off the set. the president left town for his

hawaiian vacation with a smile on his face with good reason. >> a lot of folks in this town predicted that after the mid-term elections, washington would be headed for more partisanship and more gridlock. and instead, this has been a season of progress for the american people. that progress is reflected -- is a reflection of the message the voters sent in november, a message that said, it's time to find common ground on challenges facing our country. that's a message that i will take to heart in the new year. and i hope my democratic and republican friends will do the same. gwen: let's explore that common ground, beginning with the president's victory on getting the senate, including 13 republicans to ratify the new start nuclear treaty with russia which turned out to be a battle, didn't it, peter? >> five weeks ago, the republican senate said no, we

aren't going to do a deal this year, jon kyl of arizona. advisors said stand down because if you lose a treat cry vote on the floor of the senate, that is devastating. he decided to take a big gamble and overcame the republican opposition. gwen: the president said yesterday or on wednesday that he was a big -- he was a big persistent guy and he said i am persistent. is that what happened with that? >> yeah. i think he was persistent. in these lame duck session there are lots of balls in the air and one of the things that was interesting was repeal of don't ask, don't tell. republicans said, if you do that, democrats, we aren't going to do the start treaty. so, you know, take your pick here and that was a big issue. what did they do? this was important for democrats to repeal don't ask, don't tell.

and the president said, we've got to do it and do both. i know that the vice president, who was working on both of these -- and by the way unsung hero in all of this, i would argue, was kind of shocked when harry reid brought up don't ask, don't tell. but they got both. gwen: conventional wisdom, even a week ago, was that the president was kind of overreaching on all of this. >> yes, it was. you have to give him credit and gloria is right and give the vice president credit and harry reid in the way he managed the last days of that lame duck session. here we are -- some historians say the most productive congress in half a century and a congress that was voted out by the american people. gwen: maybe there is a connection. >> odd ending to this remarkable year. gwen: is that what it is, susan, they came back and the president

said, what the heck, get some things done. >> that is part of it. there is a correlation between being successful and being rejected. i don't think anyone dispute that this was one of the most ficttive congresses in terms of congress. and in 1966, democrats lost 50 seats. in 2010, democrats lost 63 seats. i talked to a member of congress -- the thing that is interesting about democrats on capitol hill, there is a complete rejection of the idea that anything they did was wrong, it was just a bad economic situation and maybe they didn't sell it to the public. gwen: nancy pelosi saying i'm effective and that's why we lost. >> no element. there were elements outside of our control. >> republicans got a message here, the american voters said, ok, we're going to vote you in, but we don't really love you. we don't like the other guys and

the way they have run the congress and we want you to get something done and end the gridlock. when republican leaders returned to the hill, mitch mcconnell and he may get guff from it, he decided, we are going to cut some deals. he didn't want to cut the deal on start, but he did get what he wanted on tax cuts and killed the big spending bill that he didn't like. but they did move things through. and the public, by the way, is happy about it. >> you have to remember, there is a big, big caveat here. the president got important things through and still a democratic congress. we haven't actually moved to the new congress with a republican house and stronger republican minority in the senate. we have to keep in mind when we say he managed to show and can get things done, we haven't tested that. >> i agree with that. and i would add one other element. this was perhaps a unique set of

circumstances that allowed all of this to happen. the tax deal, for example. there had to be something done on taxes. so, the fact that they got an agreement was significant. there's no question about it. and yet, it was preordained that you were going to see that happen. the way it fit together -- the start treaty, as you have written, this got the lowest vote that any major treaty has ever gotten. in the past, if you had the kind of bipartisan foreign policy and national security support that this treaty had, that's going to get through. gwen: there is always the possibility that what happens after you have gotten a couple big victories is that you have made some enemies along the way. and mitch mcconnell may have cut this deal but he didn't vote for the president's other big priorities. and john mccain who is worth watching in all of this. we have a little bit to listen from him on the floor this week in which he talks about this.

>> so here we are about six weeks after an election that repudiated the agenda of the other side. we are jamming our trying to jam major issues through the senate of the united states because they know they can't get it done beginning next january 5. you can't do it next january 5 and the american people have spoken and you are acting indirect repudiation of the message of the american people. gwen: if you are john mccain or any of these incoming members of congress, people who didn't have anything to do with the lame duck session, aren't you carrying a couple of grudges you want to act on? >> i talked to senator alexander from tennessee and he said they got five to 10 votes they lost on the final vote on start, because they are mad about don't ask, don't tell, dream act. the mood was poisonned and

people are going to remember that in the new year. gwen: there were a couple of things that were like slam dunks, like 9/11 and that was the last thing they got done. what was that? >> it's money. next session is all going to be about money. gwen: 6.2 billion. >> they had to cut it and limit it to a certain degree. but they ended up -- they ended up passing it. but again, when you get to the next session, they spent, one would argue, $900 billion on what you would call a stimulus package. and so these new members coming in, you want to talk them about having a grudge against their leadership, senator-elect paul says he has cuts in his back pocket that he is going to propose when he gets to capitol hill. so it will be a whole new ball

game. gwen: are the democrats who were demoralized after the mid-term elections and angry after the tax cut deal, have they said, we have more power or we got what we could under the deadline? >> i don't think democrats are feeling all that much better. particularly, a lot of the democrats on the house side tend to be more in the liberal caucus who were the ones most angry by this tax deal and on the senate side, it is a testament to harry reid because so much of the senate is a tactical chest match and what we saw between he and mitch mcconnell was a fascinating power play between how mcconnell worked with the white house on the tax deal but don't ask, don't tell was harry reid figuring out how to get this done. republicans may be encouraged by harry reid, but a lot of the

victories they chalked up in the lame duck. mitch mcconnell got six more votes. there are going to be more emboldend in the senate and republican majority in the house. there are things john boehner won't bring to the floor. gwen: this is a president who came out after the election and called republicans hostage takers. bad feeling left over from that or is he the one feeling that way? >> he's happy. he is feeling mostly happy. he has these contradictory sentiments. he likes the idea of compromise to get things done, he likes saying, we are making washington work. one of the reasons that the democrats lost in his estimation is they failed on the promise to make washington work. on the other hand, when he makes these deals, he makes it so

clear that there are parts of those that he really hates that it angers the people he is making the deals with. i don't know how he is going to work that balance out over a long sustained period. gwen: i heard some of that playing out on wednesday on the question about gay marriage now that you got don't ask, don't tell. some said, what about gay marriage? he said i'm wrestling with that, is that a wrestling match or is that personal? >> if i was his political advisor, i would say, don't wrestle personally. gwen: he said that more than once. >> he has and he knows it's playing out and likely to wind up in the supreme court and he knows that his position on don't ask, don't tell could be a contradiction of his position on gay marriage or some could interpret it that way. i think this is a president who found his groove, got his groove back right. he now contacts everything in

politics. he has opponents. they are the leaders of the house and the leader of the senate. he used to have to stand side by side with nancy pelosi and harry reid. they led health care and he followed in health care and now i think it's going to be easier for him in many ways to carve out his positions and to lean on them. >> on the gay marriage issue, when he takes this position in favor of civil unions, not gay marriage, politics were different. today, barack obama is to the right on gay marriage of dick cheney and ted olson who won the bush-gore case. and young general race who he needs to motivate. on his ability to drive the agenda, you saw two different tactics, you saw on the tax cut working out a deal with the republican leadership. on the start and on don't ask,

don't tell, working around the republican leadership and getting enough republicans on board. he is testing out in a test- driveway. gwen: loophole he could drive a truck through if he believes there could be action. he might change his mind but he is not going to go out there and force it. >> he seemed to be a more liberated president in this post-election period. after the first several weeks, that set the whole white house back. but your point that he had to stand with the democrats when he came in as president and now he feels obviously he can stand somewhat more on his own and he will try to make his deals where he can and he will try to keep his base satisfied. gwen: i'm going to coin a phrase that i hope everyone will go viral, opportunistic

bipartisanship. a chance to be bipartisan when it serves a different purpose and reject it when it doesn't. >> if you describe the past two weeks, that would be a good way to phrase it. looking forward, i feel like these two weeks set the stage for what's to come and you suggesting it's money. the battle line has been drawn on spending. even if you look on start, don't ask, don't tell, good accomplishments and bipartisan support for both of them. these bills weren't whipped. at the end of the day, they passed with strong margins. the bills that were contentious, was the 9/11 bill, which came down to money and the republicans backed them down and on the spending bill, to fund the federal government, just know deal and republicans got their way on that and will have another big spending fight in march. it's spending but also very fill could have call, what do these two parties believe, health care bill and all of that that money

is tied to. it's hard to see if the core of the debate is going to be over that issue. gwen: you made an important point. the president didn't get, something he wasn't necessarily lobbying for, omnibus bill. spending sank that and the dream act, which was considered to be the soup under the tent and was roundly rejected. he said that was his biggest disappointment. i was surprised to hear that. >> not if you saw the census results and saw the states that gained the most population with hispanic voters and arizona and nevada, for example. i think -- by the way, when he talked about the dream act, what was interesting to me was that he talked about it in terms of people. gwen: very personal. >> very personal, i know these young kids. they came here.

through no fault of their own. they grew up here. this is the only country they know. gwen: he talked about that about don't ask, don't tell. >> right. and it's a different voice from obama, less policy, more personal and i do believe that the parties are betting on different sides of this -- of the immigration issue, not just the dream act, but the republicans are betting on the backlash and the democrats are looking for hispanic voters. >> the dream act was a policy disappointment but a political win for democrats. this is a debate they very much want to have going into the 2012 election cycle because hispanics are core both for obama and democratic candidates. gwen: lessons that were learned from this. one of the lessons, the president and his partisans realized that one of his great weaknesses seems like he is distant. now he is personalizing issues,

even the tax cut debate, which would seem like washington gook. is that one of the lessons they have learned? >> one of the lessons learned but haven't found the real formula. his words yesterday conveyed some of that. but he hasn't done it on the fundamental issue, which is the economy. you know, the tax package may or may not help the economy and they obviously hope it will. but that's where he has to connect with people and show people that what he's doing is producing results. gwen: jobs. >> right. >> talk about the jobs that i'm going to create for you. >> i think he is also learning a lesson from a couple of these things, the task package is the first time he cut a deal with republican leaders. everything up until now, health care, stimulus were about getting a couple republicans enough to get to 60 -- >> it didn't work. >> first time he had to sit down

with the actual leadership and say, what do you need? here's my bottom line. where's your bottom line? mitch mcconnell said his first priority is to make sure that president obama is a one-term president. also said this week that if is an interesting moment to see if they can translate that kind of leadership beyond the moment. >> mcconnell has been interesting because at times he has been really throwing darts at them and other times he has sounded more softer in his tone, more willing to work. i think he will be a fascinating person to watch next year and obviously john boehner, incoming speaker, because he has the power. but as the person there with an enhanced minority in the senate. >> he has an interesting minority, because a lot of these incoming senators are people that, in fact, mitch mcconnell did not support in the primaries

initially. gwen: he used to support earmarks, too. >> that's interesting, because he has done a total turnaround on that. he will have a lot of people to please because they have to prove they can govern and get something done along with the republican-led house. gwen: in the end, are both republicans and democrats trying to appeal to those independents? is that what all of this is about? if you want public opinion to come on your side, you are speaking not to the liberals on are mad at the presidents or the conservatives who are planning to upend the republicans but to this great middle? >> yes, but i think the white house has a sharper focus on that right now. for the reason that gloria said, the energy that propelled the election results came much more from the very conservative base of the republican party and it has brought people in who have made a lot of promises to do

some very tough things on spending and health care, so the republicans have a different balancing act. the president now has a little more maneuvering room which he used to his advantage in this lame duck session to show to independents he can get things done. >> if you look at one of the interesting modern phenomenon in politics were wave election years, in terms of long-term party-controlled stability is no longer there. in the house, democrats, two dozen or more seats to win back the house. the senate will be divided. the possibility of control is, you know, always up in the air all the time. these ideas of the democrats ruling the house for 40 years, those days are over. gwen: you have to get along. >> that middle part of the electorate the american people have proven to be fickle. the bums they voted in will be

voted out. >> the outsider didn't like what the republicans did in this congress. they didn't like tax cuts, didn't like start. gwen: we are going to see. now we have set the table and know where we are going and we'll talk about that next week. we would like to offer a farewell to one of our own. our producer is off to new challenges. in nearly 30 years here at weta in washington, he has had ar hand in producing documentaries and a musical concert or two or three. and he has been our news up to and including 2008. thank you. we are heading out for our egg nothing now. but the conversation continues online. see you next week on "washington week." and merry christmas.

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